Underground Cinema Hits New Depths

It's a bit too late to get into the most talked-about restaurant and movie theater in Paris.

That's because it's illegal, and it's 50 feet underground.

Police recently stumbled onto the establishment, located in a 4,000-square-foot cavern in the city's catacombs (search), reports the Guardian of London.

There was a full-sized movie screen, along with projectors and a large library of videotapes, in a room "like an underground amphitheater, with terraces cut into the rock and chairs," according to a police spokesman.

In the cave next door was a restaurant and bar.

"There were bottles of whiskey and other spirits behind a bar," the police spokesman said, "tables and chairs, a pressure-cooker for making couscous."

The authorities also found that the joint had been rigged up with full-scale electrical service and at least three working telephone lines.

Tourists are accustomed to walking through the bones of 6 million disinterred Parisians on the official tour of the catacombs, which are the spaces left behind by limestone mining in centuries past.

But the "official" catacombs are only a small part of the entire network, which consists of about 170 miles of tunnels, rooms, caverns and waterways though the darkness underneath the City of Light.

Parisian rebels and resistance fighters have used the underground network since the days of the Bastille (search) and the guillotine, including during both German occupations and the street uprisings of 1968.

It's been illegal to wander into the unsanctioned areas since 1955, but there are hundreds of so-called present-day "cataphiles" who explore, throw dance parties, and apparently, watch movies deep underground.

Police may have missed their chance to catch the latest perpetrators. Three days after discovering the restaurant and cinema, authorities returned to find the phone and power lines cut, the equipment gone and a note on the ground reading "Do not try to find us."

On Tuesday, a group calling itself the Perforating Mexicans (search) claimed responsibility for the movie theater.

Patrick Alk, a photographer who said he's close to the group, told a radio station the cinema closing was "a shame, but not the end of the world."

There were "a dozen more where that one came from," he added. "You guys have no idea what's down there."

Bank Held Up by Man With Pitchfork

AIKEN, S.C. (AP) — A robber who used a rusty pitchfork to stick up a bank got away — and so far, finding him has been like looking for a needle in a haystack.

The man, wearing sunglasses and a mask, entered Security Federal Bank (search) Tuesday morning and threatened employees with the 4-foot-long pitchfork. The man took an undisclosed amount of money.

The robber dropped the farm tool as he ran from the bank through a wooded area to a golf course behind the bank, police said.

Bloodhounds tracked the robber to a fast-food restaurant parking lot, where police say the man got into a white van driven by a woman.

No customers were in the bank during the holdup, and no one was injured.

Do As I Say, Not As I Do

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) — Monroe County Coroner David Toumey was hospitalized with a leg wound after accidentally shooting himself while trying to demonstrate gun safety.

Toumey told The Herald-Times for a story published Saturday that he was demonstrating gun safety to some people at a Lake Monroe (search) boat ramp about 11 p.m. Wednesday when he accidentally shot himself.

He said that as he checked to make sure his weapon was unloaded, the gun discharged, and a bullet struck him in his left leg.

"It's an unfortunate accident," Toumey said. "I've always been very, very safe."

He was taken to Bloomington Hospital (search) and later transferred to Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis.

Toumey said he was scheduled to have surgery Saturday and expects to be in the hospital from three to five days.

Monroe County Sheriff Steve Sharp said he was unable to release details of the shooting because the report had yet to be filed by the deputy assigned to the case.

Pot Plants Growing Outside Courthouse

GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) — Sheriff's deputies didn't have to go far to find this marijuana: It was growing right outside their Green Bay headquarters.

A Green Bay television station, WLUK-TV, reported Tuesday night that it received a tip and alerted the Brown County Sheriff's Department about the greenery in a planter on the south side of the courthouse.

Chief Deputy John Gossage wasn't sure of the plants' identity, but a drug officer confirmed the presence of marijuana.

"Obviously, as a prank, somebody planted this or dropped some seeds into the plants," Gossage said.

The drug officer pulled the six small plants, which were to be destroyed.

"It's a good thing it was brought to our attention because someone may have realized what it was and could've taken it and used it," Gossage said.

Junkies Shooting Up Spider Poison

SYDNEY, Australia (AP) — Inmates in an Australian prison have been caught breeding deadly redback spiders (search) that they milked for venom to inject themselves for a high, according to government records.

Four spiders — with venom that can kill children and the elderly with a single painful bite — were found in Grafton maximum security prison in New South Wales state on Feb. 15, documents released Tuesday by state opposition lawmakers said.

Prison authorities suspect inmates found the spiders, which are common in Australia, in the prison nursery. They bred the spiders in jars, milked them of venom, which they diluted with water before injecting, opposition Liberal Party justice spokesman Andrew Humpherson said.

"It just shows how comfortable they are — actually accessing and in this case breeding their own source of venom; their own source of drugs," Humpherson told reporters, in an attack on the Labor-led state government's law and order policies.

The Liberals accessed the state prison records under freedom of information laws.

The records also showed that a 16-inch marijuana plant was found growing in another prison in February.

Human Lives Under Water

HAMPTON, Tenn. (AP) — A Tennessee man beat his own record for staying underwater with scuba gear after five days in a lake — complete with recliner, a checkerboard, music and good friends to keep him company.

Then Jerry Hall cheerfully signed a pledge to his wife never to do it again.

"I had the easy job," Hall said. "It was my dive team that did all the work. I kept them hopping all the time, and they never once complained. Whatever I wanted or needed, they were there for me."

Hall, 39, of Bluff City, Tenn., already is in the current edition of the Guinness World Book of Records for staying underwater with scuba gear for 71 hours, 39 minutes and 40 seconds.

He surpassed that at 9:56 a.m. Wednesday and didn't leave eastern Tennessee's Watauga Lake until Friday morning with a record time of 120 hours, 1 minute and 25 seconds.

"That knot in the pit of my stomach is gone and I'm glad he's all right," said his wife, Vicky Hall.

Hall and his team of 10 divers had been training for this effort for a year.

They used a platform lowered down to 13 feet below the surface. A recliner was harnessed to the dive deck, and Hall napped there for up to four hours at a time. An underwater speaker broadcast music, and Hall passed the hours with a checkerboard made out of an aluminum plate.

"Everybody that came down there to play checkers beat me," Hall said. "I'm giving them up."

During the dive, Hall nibbled on food that was sent down to him, such as apples and candy bars, by temporarily removing his breathing gear. But he relied mostly on water from a pouch-like drinking system used by cyclists and hikers.

Compiled by FOXNews.com's Paul Wagenseil.

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